1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to pyrometallergical furnaces for the smelting, converting, or melting of concentrates, mattes, or metals, and more particularly to methods and devices for applying and maintaining proper compression of the brick hearth in a furnace refractory so as to extend its service life.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Layers of refractory bricks inside a tub-like shell are needed to cover the floor interior with a hearth sub-layer and brick hearth working layer, and to line the interior of the walls. The refractory brick layers inside the steel shell can withstand the very high operating temperatures, and the shell provides the necessary containment and support.
Some so-called flexible shells are constructed with adjoining plates that are bound together. The loose plate construction can accommodate some growth in the hearth bricks that occurs as the bricks each slowly absorb molecules of metal over their operational lifetimes. The conventional means of binding the shell plates together, and that maintain a correct compressive force on the bricks to keep them tight, are usually very complex and expensive. The other type of shell, of interest herein, is constructed as a single rigid piece that will remain one size, and needs no such plate binding mechanisms. But the conventional ways used to keep the hearth bricks together under the right pressures for rigid shells provide for only very limited growth in the hearth brick before shutdown and replacement is required.
What is needed are methods and devices that can accommodate larger amounts of growth in the brick hearth, and that use the less expensive rigid shells to contain them.